broadcast dialect?

Factual Questions
1

I have heard that the dialect of American English that broadcasters (television and radio) use as a model is based on the particular dialect spoken in the Minneapolis metropolitan area.

Is this true?

Also, if it is true, can anyone tell me why this particular dialect was chosen? And if it’s not true, what model(s) is considered “correct”?

2

I think they all pretty much sound Canadian.

-CoffeeGuy

3

That’s what I thought and why I’m asking the question. Did I stump the Teeming Millions? I did not think this possible!

4

I’ve never noticed one consistent dialect among broadcasters. Are we talking word choice or pronunciation? Nothing I’ve ever heard on a news show ever struck me as Minnesotan, much less specific to the Twin Cities.

5

I’m talking about what is taught in communications schools, or sought in the news media. I suppose I’m mainly talking about the news, in particular. And not really you’re local news station.

6

Tom Brokaw was born and raised in South Dakota.
Peter Jennings was born and raised in Ontario.
Dan Rather was born and raised in Texas.
Jim Lehrer was born in Kansas, and raised in Kansas and Texas.

7

I’m at a journalism school, and though I’m not a broadcast major, again, I’ve never noticed anything regional (Minneapolis or any other region) about the way we’re taught to write broadcast copy. And I didn’t mean local news either.

8

BTW, the classic Minnesota accent belongs to Jesse Ventura, who was born and raised in the Minneapolis area. But I don’t hear too many newscasters who sound like him.

9

yoyo3500 is talking about speech, not writing.

10

Makes more sense, but as I said before, I don’t see anything particularly Minnesota-ish coming from broadcasters not from that general region.

11

Actually this goes back some 30-40 years to some broadcasters’ belief that the most perfect announcer-speak came from longtime CBS and ABC correspondent Harry Reasoner. Reasoner’s vowel pronunciation wasn’t too sharp (like eastern accents) nor as flat as the classic “midwestern” accent) Consonants came out clearly and there was inflection without excitedness. Most of all, he sounded perfectly natural, not like he was auditioning for a part in a play.

Reasoner got his start in broadcasting in Minneapolis, before moving on to CBS. But he no more had a classic Minnesota accent than John Chancellor – who cut his teeth in Chicago – had a classic Chicago accent.

12

And, Diane Sawyer is from Kentucky, I learned last night.

13

Interesting, Kunilou. Sort of reminds me of the way every airline pilot tries to be Chuck Yeager.

14

Yeah, but he doens’t sound like a Texan on his news broadcast. But once I heard him interviewed, and when he wasn’t “on stage” he sounded much more like a Texan.

15

South Dakota’s pretty linguistically homogeneous, and while I’m not sure about Kansas and Texas, I do know that Ontario is a pretty big province, and encompasses several distinct dialect areas. Someone from Thunder Bay will sound markedly different from someone from Toronto, who in turn will sound different from a native of the Ottawa Valley or someone who hails from the coast of Hudson Bay or one of the province’s francophone communities. There’s not much you can say about someone’s accent by simply noting that they’re from “Ontario”.

To keep this post semi-topical, CTV news anchor Lloyd Robertson’s accent is a bit atypical for North American broadcasting. The most notable feature (to me) is that he rhymes “were” with “bear” instead of “burr”. In my estimation, CBC’s Peter Mansbridge speaks something more closely resembling the American standard.

16

FWIW I’ve been in commercial broadcast for 34 years now.

Through the years I’ve been told that what U.S. broadcasters call “Broadcast English” is a midwest dialect.

It was/is supposed to be the easiest to understand by most of the public.

17

Many broadcasters speak with a perceived Midwestern accent because of its close association with the so-called “General American” pronunciation, the AmE equivalent of the “Received Pronunciation” in BrE (also known as “BBC English” or “the Queen’s English”):

Both the General American and the Received pronunciations have been exalted as the supposed accent-free version of the language, a notion now widely discredited among linguists.